Hello, friends! Happy February to you all. I am back on the blog for our second book review of the year! Yay! These are so fun to do and I’m really hoping that y’all enjoy reading them. 🙂 Before I start blabbering too much, let’s get started!

As soon as I began reading this book, I realized that the show and the book had quite little in common. A couple of the names, a few quotes, and some of the events that transpired were the same, but overall, the book and the show are completely different. Both wonderful, but definitely very different.

I find myself feeling a little bit guilty writing this review, because I feel like this is the kind of book that you’re not able to fully understand after just one reading. I worry that my interpretation of this book will be found wanting, but perhaps when I read it again, I will add some additional thoughts and findings.

The book follows Eleanor Vance, a young woman who’s trying to add some adventure to her life. She finds herself invited to Hill House, an infamous mansion, by Dr Montague, who hopes to find evidence that the mansion is haunted. Also invited are Theodora, his assistant, and Luke, the future heir of Hill House.

I found Eleanor Vance to be a wildly interesting character. She wants so desperately to fit in and belong somewhere. She sees Hill House as a place where she can find that sense of belonging that she’s always yearned for.

I will be honest in saying that I didn’t think that this book would scare me, but I found myself thoroughly spooked throughout. The scares in this book are quite subtle and before you even realize it, your arm hair is standing up.

Hill House is so intoxicating to Eleanor because she’s surrounded by people that she feels she could belong to, but that got me thinking, could this have happened ANYWHERE? The idea of belonging, of being wanted is what she wants and Hill House is the only place where she’s felt as though she belonged. Could this have happened anywhere, or was her experience something completely unique to Hill House?

I don’t want to give away too much, but I will note that the ending of this book really shocked me. I feel like I’m being extra vague in this book review, but this is a book that I really encourage y’all to read, so I don’t want to give it all away! I really recommend giving it a read, though.

Quotes I enjoyed…

“She had taken to wondering lately, during those swift-counted years, what had been done with all those wasted summer days; how could she have spent them so wantonly? I am foolish, she told herself early every summer, I am very foolish; I am grown up now and know the values of things.”

“I am going, I am going, I have finally taken a step.”

“I am the fourth person in this room, I am one of them; I belong.”

“It’s not nice to think of children growing up like mushrooms, in the dark.”

“People like answering questions about themselves, she thought; what an odd pleasure it is. I would answer anything right now.”

Thank you so much for reading this incredibly vague post, my dear friends. As always, I’d love to hear some book suggestions from all of you.